Floating fish-trap



H. GANGMARK.

FLOATING FISH TRAP. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 11, W19.

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lNVENTQR Y E N R 0 A UNITED srnrns PATENT orrrcn.

HAROLD GAN'GMARK, 0F SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.

FLOATING FISH-TRAP.

Application filed November 11, 1919.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HAROLD GANGMARK, a citizen of the United States, residing at Seattle, in the county of King and State of Washington, have invented certain neW and useful Improvements in F loating Fish- Traps, of which the following is a specification:

This invention relates to floating fishtraps and is designed, more especially, for catching salmon.

The object of my invention is the improvement in traps of this character to afford a peculiarly eficient trap and one which is compact and convenient to operate.

With these ends in view the invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement and combination of parts as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of a portion of a floating fish-trap showing an embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section through 22 of Fig. 1.

Referring to said drawings, the numeral 5 designates a triangular shaped heart member which communicates at its apex by means of a tunnel 6 with the pot member 7 at about the midwidth of the latter. To each side of the heart 5 and in front of the pot 7 are spiller members 8 into which fish are directed from the pot through tunnels 81 located, desirably, at about the midwidths of the respective spillers.

The netting constituting the side and endwalls, denoted by 71 and 82, of the pot and spillers and also the rear ends of the side walls 51 of the heart are suspended from a buoyant frame. As shown in Fig. 1, said frame is made of timbers or logs to provide a structure resembling the letter A.

More particularly, the frame is composed of outer elements 9 which meet and are joined at their rear ends 91 and are secured intermediate their lengths to the ends of a transverse coupling element 92. In proximity of the middle of the coupling element 92 are secured in spaced relation, the rear ends of the inner frame elements 93 which, by preference, are arranged parallel or nearly so, with the adjacent outer element 9. The forward ends of the respective inner elements are secured to ends of tie elements 94: whose other ends are secured to the outer Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 10, 1920.

Serial No. 337,375.

element parts 95 in front of the coupling element 92.

A frame structure thus arranged is capable of retaining its shape by the various parts bracing each other, so to speak.

Connected to said frame are cables 10 which are intended to extend to anchors or tow boats (not shown) and at the trap are sustained at the water surface by a plurality of floats'll. These cables serve to support the web or netting of the heart in front of the frame and also the lead web -21 which is utilized for guiding the fish into the heart 5. 52 represent web wings or jiggers provided at the forward ends of the heart walls and are held in operative positions by means of stay ropes 53 con necting the inner ends of the respective wings to the cables at opposite sides of the heart.

The pot, spillers and heart are provided with bottoms, indicated by 72, 83 and 54. Weights, denoted by 30, are provided along the lower edges of the heart walls 51 and of the leads 21 to cause the same to hang in substantially upright planes.

The webbing of the pot and spillers, as usual, are adapted to be raised and lowered and when employed are retained within a cage formed of rods or pipes 40 depending from the frame.

In operation, the trap is held or drawn so as to alford a current of water in the general direction of arrows X, so that the fish will naturally enter between the leads 21 into the heart 5. The fish are then guided by the heart walls 51 and tunnel 6 into the pot 7 wherein they turn rearwardly and enter through the respective tunnels 81 into one or both of the spillers 8 from which they are removed by brailing or elevating the netting of the spillers to spill or dump the fish into boats brought alongside the adjacent frame parts 95.

The disposition of the spillers in front of the pot is, I believe, new in the art and are located so as to receive the fish when they turn against the current to buck the tide in their endeavor to escape from the trap.

Under certain conditions, as when the trap is anchored or is being towed diagonally to the water current, but one of the spillers need be used, but best results will usually be had by employing both spillers.

What I claim, is

1. In a fish trap, the combination with a pot and heart arranged one in front of the other, of a spiller disposed at one side of the heart and in front of the pot.

2. In a fish trap, the combination with a heart and a spiller, of a pot having communication from the same side thereof with both the heart and spiller.

3. In a fish trap, the combination with a heart and pot of substantially triangular shapes and arranged one in front of the other, and a tunnel connection extending rearwardly from said heart into the pot, of spillers disposed at opposite sides of the heart, and tunnels located at opposite sides of the aforesaid tunnel and extending forwardly from the pot into the respective spillers.

4c. In a fish trap, a floatable frame comprising relatively diverging outer elements connected together at one end of the trap, a coupling element extending transversely of the trap and having its ends connected to said outer elements, inner elements secured to said coupling element and in substantially parallel relations with respect to the adjacent of said outer. elements, and elements supplementary to said coupling element for connecting the outer elements to the adjacent inner elements.

5. In a fish trap, the combination with the heart, pot and spiller netting, of a frame composed of two longitudinal diverging outer elements and a transverse element 7 serving to support the pot netting, and inner longitudinally diverging elements which serve with the aforesaid elements to support the spiller netting and also serving to support the outlet end of the heart netting.

6. In a fish-trap having pot, heart and spiller members, a floatable supporting frame therefor of substantially the shape of the letter A, and affording an opening in each leg thereof for the spiller netting, an opening between the legs to accommodate the discharge end of the heart netting, and an opening adjacent to the apex of the frame for the pot netting.

Signed at Seattle, Vashington, his 5th day of November, 1919.

HAROLD GANGMARK. 

